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Superintendent pushes micro‑move to bell times to cut bus runs; parents urge faster fixes for daily service problems
Summary
Superintendent proposed a micro‑move (secondary 5 minutes earlier; elementary 10 minutes later) intended to reduce morning/afternoon runs to ~50 and improve on‑time performance; parents at the meeting said current daily bus cancellations and route instability are causing anxiety and missed trips for students.
The district superintendent presented a bell‑time plan at the March 16 meeting intended to improve transportation efficiency and on‑time performance.
The superintendent said the ‘micro‑move’ would start secondary schools 5 minutes earlier and elementary schools 10 minutes later, allowing the district to compress morning and afternoon routes from current schedules (72 morning runs, 91 afternoon runs cited in the study) to roughly 50 runs each, which she said would match the number of drivers the district can reasonably staff and reduce chronic lateness. The plan assumes 50 drivers would cover standard runs for about 5,900 students and that specialized routes (out‑of‑district, charter, special education) and contracted drivers (about 15 routes costing roughly $1.3 million annually) would continue unchanged.
Superintendent said the adjustment would be on the April board agenda as an action item: new high school hours of 7:15–2:25, intermediate 7:25–2:15, elementary 9:10–3:40 (secondary 5 minutes earlier; elementary 10 minutes later). She said the micro‑move is intended to add a 15‑minute buffer to reduce late pickups and dropoffs and better support extracurricular activities and late runs.
Several public commenters urged immediate improvements to current service reliability. A parent who identified herself as Michelle Cranes described repeated daily bus cancellations and route changes on her child’s route since November, sometimes leaving 5–12 students without consistent morning pickup, causing anxiety and missed events; she said transportation staff sometimes could not give parents clear information. The board and superintendent acknowledged the problems and said the micro‑move is a step toward system improvements but that individual route reliability remains a near‑term concern.
Next steps: the board will consider the bell‑time change on the April agenda; the superintendent and transportation staff will continue working on day‑to‑day route stability and communications with affected families.
